The Metal Crypt on Facebook  The Metal Crypt's YouTube Channel
Review: New Eden - Solving for X
New Eden
www.horaciocolmenares.com/neweden
Solving for X

Label: Pure Steel Records
Year released: 2012
Duration: 47:23
Tracks: 11
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal

Rating:
3.5/5


Review online: April 6, 2013
Reviewed by: Sargon the Terrible
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 2.9/5 (58%) (10 Votes)
Review

New Eden have not released an album in almost a decade, and they have been broken up (or at least inactive) for almost that long. This appears to be almost a completely new lineup from the one that punched out the poorly-received Stagnant Progression back in 2003. Mainstay Horacio Colmenares is still here on guitars, and drummer Jimmy Schultz is still in the mix, but the rest is people you never heard of. New Eden have always been sort of also-rans in the US Metal scene, despite how they seem to almost embody the sound of it.

This is heavier and thrashier than anything this band has ever done before, with a massive sounding production job with raging guitars and pummeling rhythms topped off by the first-rate vocals of new frontman Rod Arias. This is much more aggressive and go-for-the-throat than I expected from this band, and it makes for an arresting sound. New Eden have always been a bit progressive, and that is in evidence here, with more elaborate arrangements and tighter compositions than is the standard for straight-up US-Metal. They try some straight-ahead thrash on "Unsolved Aggressions", and that doesn't really work, but most of this disc is solid.

If there's a problem, it's that "solid" is pretty much as far as it goes. Besides the enjoyable heaviness, this album doesn't have much that is terribly memorable, and a lot of the songs sound a lot alike, so there's a sort of fatigue that sets in when the disc is about half over. This is listenable, but not a classic.

More about New Eden...
Review: Obscure Master Plan (reviewed by Bruce Dragonchaser)
Review: Solving for X (reviewed by MetalMike)
Click below for more reviews
Latest 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Various Books/Zines 



The Metal Crypt - Crushing Posers Since 1999
Copyright  © 1999-2024, Michel Renaud / The Metal Crypt.  All Rights Reserved.